November is upon us and the fishing can't really get any better than it is or has been for many many years now.

The whiting in all shapes and sizes are moving up and down the small boat channel, rous channel, sand hills and amity banks, and the quality in most cases is fantastic. I have been finding they are biting so much better with good run in the tide.

The squire and snapper fishing is very good, with some large fish caught in the northern bay reefs and plenty of really good fish around green island and peel island and the rous channel mt cotton reach section. I am still finding that whiting heads and whole whiting are the best baits, but plenty of fish are caught on mullet fillets and other baits such as squid, octopus, pike and garfish. And remember those horrible grinners are excellent bait for squire.

School mackerel just keep getting caught and its been a pleasure to hear so many fishermen using diving boards and spoons picking up schoolies for the first time.

So the bay is alive and well, and there are plenty of fish all over the bay. And remember when filleting your whiting keep the head and bodies for bait and berley. It's cheap bait and works a treat.

The water temperature is on the move so it will not be long to start looking for the spotties to come into the bay. The water is still a little cool but i don't think it will be long before we see them in the bay. There's lots of blue bait at the moment... it's only a matter of time!

Well its the time of the year those spottys come into the bay and looks like the big females are in first as usual full of roe and hungry,if the pattern follows they will be around for a while then a few weeks of quietness and then the million males arrive normally end december but this could be an early year,and judging by the amount of bait in at the moment... lets hope the seasons runs longer then last year,
The best way to catch if you have a fast boat is to get to the feeding schools and throw a chrome slug on the outside of the feeding frenzy and retrieve at a pretty fast pace without jumping the slug out of the water,and remember they don't like wire so a double or a heavier trace is the best way and swivels are a no no they will get bitten off.
Watertower bait and tackle have the chrome slugs i have been making up for years and pretty cheap so it does not cost a fortune if you loose a few..(spent all sunday putting hooks on)..i like single hooks but you can always change to trebles if you prefer,but i find single hooks are easier to unhook and these days with the 5 only limit for spottys its easier to release as well.so enjoy the season the water temp is perfect for them and they taste pretty good as well.

Plenty of schoolies around the hope banks in the last few days northern side with the outgoing tide and south eastern side with the incomming,the whiting on the southern side of the small boat channel were also in good numbers in the shallow water,since the report of spottys i have not seen any in the last few days except bonito ,so just have to keep looking.

dead calm conditions made it for a great day on the bay. the whiting master and i caught lots of good size whiting which were plentiful on the banks south of the entrance to the small boat channel. the school mackerel were also in big numbers especially with the outgoing tide on the north western side of the hope banks, in 32ft depth that's where the bait was hovering, and there were plenty. we caught 18 with only 4 being big fish (the rest were all around the 45cm mark) so a good next few months for schoolies. let's hope they leave enough white bait for the spotties, as that's what was in their stomachs today.

Not great out there today had a couple of hours of calm but the easterly kicked in pretty strong 20 knots.the water is like mud especially in the morning with the last of the outgoing tide and the big tides have not helped.
the schoolies were in the cleaner water at the entrance to the small boat channel .and plenty of whiting from the small boat channel in the the shallow water all the he way where the rous channel meet's..

plenty of school mackerel on the north eastern side of the hope banks with the outgoing tide on friday lots of just under size but plenty of 60 plus cm ones as well .and the whiting were thick in the small boat channel on the southern side on the shallows especially when the run in tide started to run strongly.

From the photos and email i think many of our readers had a great day out catching some good size schoolies around the hope banks on saturday, and some nice size squire caught at peels hole in the wall green island and the lazaret,and many reported lots of whiting caught in the rous and small boat channel so a great day on the bay.

First calmer day .the school mackerel have moved to the north eastern side of the hope Banks. Near the entrance to the small boat channel and the whiting thick on the southern side in the shallows.. The squire and sweetlip were fighting to get on the hook at lunchtime today eastern side of green..as the tides drop the schoolies will be around the hope banks later in the week I would think.

The fishing has been great since the winds stopped with plenty of mackerel school that is around the hope banks,and the north eastern side at the moment is best,the only problem today was the count that came on the boat to the ones the dolphins took, 8 to the dolphins 3 for us, and they were ravenous were chasing the school mackerel out of the water near the boat, but it was funny at least,the whiting are on in earnest thru the southern banks (shallows).
and the sweet lip at green are in plague proportions and really nice size fish, i don't know why the squire are not there at the moment, the water temp is high enough for the spotties to start coming in so a look see over the next few weeks will have to be the go.

Out for a few days in the past week with easterlies blowing every day and look look continuing for another week ,the big tides have turned the bay into mud and with trawlers working it has not helped ,but thats pretty normal this time of year ,the sweetlip are thick thuout the bay islands and we managed a nice feed at lazaret gutter ,and caught unexpectedly a 55cm plus chinaman have never seen one in the bay in the 4o plus years fishing the bay, i thought i had a lovely big snapper on,there were plenty of good size sweetlip and squire but a very friendly pod of dolphins decided to swim around the boat for 5 hours so not many fish made it to the boat,but enough for a feed.
The school mackerel were no where to be seen but they will be back as the smaller tides and water clears.
Plenty of whiting in our usual haunts but tried the area western side of dialba passage and there were some very very large whiting around nice spot when there are strong south easterlies .
Crabbing seems to have improved especially closer in to wynum manly and around green island and st helena .and in front of lota creek and aquatic paradise.
to all our readers may you all have a safe and healthy new year and may you all have a great fishing 2019.

I took my dad out for a quick troll for mackerel around the Hope Banks yesterday morning and found a patch of schoolies on the south eastern side of the banks on the incoming tide but after the first one (just legal) was boated the dolphins then moved in and took the next three, with only one undersized one making it to the boat from that point onwards (and even it had teeth marks in it and didn't release well). Darn dolphins!!